Yes, and home is where an electric pickup makes the most sense – but Level 2 stops being optional. Truck batteries are much larger than car batteries, and a truck uses more energy per mile, so the charger has to hand back a day’s driving in a few overnight hours. The daily math is simple, though, and a 32-48 A charger covers it for most owners.
Key Takeaways
- For an electric pickup, Level 2 at home is effectively required; Level 1 cannot replace a day’s driving overnight.
- Daily miles are a small job – about 16 kWh for a 40-mile day in the worked example – so 32-40 A suits most owners.
- Only deep refills need 48 A speed; size the circuit with the NEC 125% rule and an electrician’s panel check.
- Plug in nightly and the big sessions mostly disappear.
Why Trucks Change the Math
Two numbers grow at once. The battery is bigger, so a full charge is a lot of kilowatt-hours. And the truck uses more of them per mile than a car does, especially on towing or hauling days. All figures in this section are labelled examples – check your own truck’s display for its real consumption. Take a truck using about 40 kWh per 100 miles, and a large battery of about 120 kWh usable:
- A normal day: 40 miles uses about 16 kWh – one sixth of the battery.
- A towing day: consumption can climb well above the example figure, so the same miles may need two or three times the energy back.
Our explainer on how many kWh it takes to charge an EV walks through the same arithmetic for cars; the truck version is identical, just with bigger inputs.
The Overnight Math
| Job | Energy needed | At 7.7 kW (32 A) | At 9.6 kW (40 A) | At about 11.5 kW (48 A) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replace a 40-mile day | about 16 kWh | about 2.1 hours | about 1.7 hours | about 1.4 hours |
| Replace a 100-mile day | about 40 kWh | about 5.2 hours | about 4.2 hours | about 3.5 hours |
| Big refill, 20% to 90% of a 120 kWh battery | about 84 kWh | about 10.9 hours | about 8.8 hours | about 7.3 hours |
| The same big refill on Level 1 (about 1 kW) | about 84 kWh | about 84 hours – not an overnight option | ||
The U.S. DOT rates Level 2 at 7-19 kW overall. The pattern in the table is the real lesson: daily driving is a two-hour job even on the smaller charger, and only the rare deep refill pushes a session toward the length of the night. Plugging in every night, as our guide to leaving an EV charging overnight recommends, keeps the deep refill rare.
Sizing the Circuit for a Bigger Charger
EV charging is a continuous load under the National Electrical Code, so the breaker is 125% of the charger current: 32 A charging needs a 40 A breaker, 40 A needs 50 A, and 48 A needs 60 A. Whether your panel can supply that is a separate question – see our guide to panel capacity and charger size works through it. A licensed electrician should confirm capacity and do the install, especially at 48 A, which is normally hard-wired.
A Sensible Truck Setup
For the main truck, the EVDANCE EV-ACT5006T is a 48 A Level 2 wall charger – about 11.5 kW on a 240 V circuit – hard-wired or on a NEMA 14-50 plug, with a 25 ft cable that helps when a long truck parks nose-out. If the panel will not support 48 A, the EV-ACS4005T portable delivers 9.6 kW at 40 A from a 14-50 outlet, and its adjustable settings (16/24/32/40 A) let an electrician match it to the circuit you actually have. The DOE’s home charging guidance covers the installation basics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I charge an electric truck on Level 1?
You can plug in, but the numbers rarely work. At roughly 2-5 miles of range per hour, even a 40-mile day needs 8-20 hours to replace, and a towing day cannot be replaced at all. Level 1 is an emergency trickle for a truck, not a plan.
Do I need the biggest charger available?
Only if your pattern demands it: arriving home late and nearly empty, then leaving early with a long day ahead. If the truck sits for 10 or more hours most nights, 32-40 A replaces daily driving with hours to spare, as the table shows.
Does home charging work out cheaper for a truck than public fast charging?
Generally yes: home electricity averages 18.31 cents per kWh in the US (EIA), well below typical public fast-charging prices. Compare your own rate and local prices for the exact gap.
Related Reading
- What Size EV Charger Can I Have at Home? Panel Capacity Explained
- How Many kWh Does It Take to Charge an EV?
- Can You Leave an EV Charging Overnight?
- EV Charging Time at 7 kW, 11 kW and 22 kW
